Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. Romans 10:1
Come with me to the little market town of Olney, in Buckinghamshire, in southeast England, and enter the cemetery at the Church of St. Peter and Paul, where we will kneel and read the inscription on an old grey-yellow stone: ‘John Newton, clerk, once an infidel and Libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa, was, by the rich mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the faith he had long labored to destroy’. Most of us know of John Newton as the author of the most popular hymn in the Christian faith: Amazing Grace. Most also know how how this man, while engaged in the slave trade, was awakened to his need of salvation during a raging storm that threatened to sink his ship. There in his storm-tossed cabin, while reading The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis, a book given to him by his dying mother, Newton trusted Christ as his Saviour. He not only abandoned the slave trade but also became a passionate opponent of it. And his joy at his own conversion led him to spend the rest of his days in preaching the Gospel. Thousands were saved as they came to hear the old sea captain tell them how he was saved. Like the apostle Paul in today’s text, John Newton had a burden for lost souls and a burning desire that their countrymen might be saved.
Paul speaks of the salvation of his fellow Jews as being his heart’s desire. There was nothing that he could wish more for them. He never expressed any desire for their deliverance from the control and bondage of Rome. He never longed that their living conditions would be improved, or that the social programs around them might be expanded to give them greater comforts and advantages. Unlike the politicians of today, who promise everything and anything that they hope the taxpayer can afford, Paul’s focus was on the souls of his people, not on how they would spend their days but on where they would spend eternity. He saw them as lost and in desperate need of a Saviour. Sadly, too many Christians around us get caught up in trying to bring about improvements in living conditions in our communities and in our world. These improvements are not bad in themselves, but the greatest need of those around is is not a better life, but eternal life. And if our greatest desire for them is anything less than salvation, we are misguided.
The salvation of his countrymen was not just Paul’s heart’s desire, it was his passionate prayer. He knew that as a nation, they had rejected their king. But some of them were saved, and some did hear and heed the Gospel message. And Paul prayed for them. In our case, we know that the world around us has adopted either religion or apathy, with no time for the claims of Christ. But some do hear and heed the Gospel message. And for them we must pray. In our Assembly meetings, our prayers are as important as our preaching of the Gospel if we would see souls saved. In our private prayers, our most passionate entreaties of the Lord are for the salvation of those near and dear to us, as well as those who are on our hearts and those who the Lord brings us into contact with.
Salvation: our heart’s greatest desire and our prayers’ greatest theme! – Jim MacIntosh